The Scale
by julianka
Summary: When Sunako begins to take some tentative steps toward a normal life, her housemates discover that their beautiful dream of free rent may have a few rather unpleasant side effects...
1. Chapter 1

Author's note:

A word of warning- I can't write romantic scenes to save my life, but it's not like Sunako and Kyohei are the world's gushiest couple, so that's okay, right? Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this story. It should be about five parts long.

Disclaimer: Not mine!

Part One:

It was Sunako Nakahara's favorite type of day- cold, damp, and miserable. Most people looked outside on days like this and started fantasizing about their next summer vacation, but at the moment Sunako was about as close as she ever got to downright perky. Halloween was coming- only three weeks to prepare!- and she had loads of stuff to do: pumpkins to carve, treats to make, unrated direct-to-video slasher movies to order from e-Bay….

Secure in the knowledge that no direct rays of sunlight would pop out of a cloud and assault her, Sunako trotted swiftly down the street toward the market, calculating how many more pumpkins and black candles she could stuff onto her windowsills without causing an actual fire. She was so busy with her mental rearranging that she nearly walked into a tall young man, dressed all in black, clutching a sketchbook. Muttering an apology, she slipped around him-

-only to stop, abruptly, when he grabbed her arm. "Er, excuse me, miss," the young man said, flushing deeply, "Would you… that is…you see, I'd really like to speak with you about something. I- I promise it's nothing bad. Would you consider accompanying me for some tea?"

Sunako's eyes narrowed.

ooooo

Kyohei, Ranmaru, Yuki, and Takenaga were lounging on the floor in front of the mansion's enormous television set, stuffing their faces with junk food and watching anime.

"I'm out of chips," Kyohei announced. "Hey, Ranmaru, give me some of yours."

"No way," Ranmaru replied, clutching his bag of chips protectively. "You're such a pig, Kyohei. Wait 'til Sunako gets home and go pester her for some food."

Kyohei glared at him and Ranmaru braced himself for the prospect of fighting a (losing) battle over his snack when they heard the kitchen door slam shut. "Yay! Sunako-chan's home!" Yuki cheered. "I'm going to go find out what's for dinner!" Scrambling to his feet, Yuki threw open the door to the kitchen, a wide, welcoming smile on his face. "Sunako-chan! What's for din-" Yuki stopped abruptly, his eyes enormous. "Who's that?"

_Who's that?_ There was a stranger here? Curious, the other three stood up and wandered to the kitchen door. Standing behind Sunako was a young man of about twenty years of age. He was tall, thin, and remarkably good-looking, if not quite in the foursome's class. He was dressed all in black, with short, artfully messy black hair… and he was staring at Sunako with a look of dazed joy on his face. He barely glanced at the four boys standing frozen in the doorway.

Sunako nodded a hello at her stunned housemates. "I picked up some instant noodles for you," she announced brusquely, ignoring Yuki's question. "You'll have to make dinner for yourselves tonight. C'mon," she said to the stranger, "let's go to my room." And without another glance in the boys' direction, she coolly took the young man's arm and pulled him out of the kitchen.

Dazed, the four boys stood like statues for another moment, unable to comprehend the thought of Sunako willingly inviting anyone- yet alone an _attractive older guy_- into her bedroom.

Kyohei was the first to speak. "Who… who was that?" A hideous thought suddenly struck him, and he turned on Yuki, grabbing him by the collar. "I'm hallucinating, aren't I? Did you slip some of your poisonous cooking into my bento?"

Yuki, terrified, denied this.

Takenaga, always the calmest of the group, pulled Kyohei away from Yuki and turned to Ranmaru, his eyes thoughtful. "Well, Ran, what do you think?"

Ranmaru pondered the situation, evaluating it with the eye of a world-class Casanova. "An older man… well, if that's Sunako's style it would explain why she never fell in love with me, I suppose." He mulled it over, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "This might be a very hopeful sign. An older, more experienced guy… our little Sunako-chan will blossom like a flower under his expert care. She'll be racking up charges at lingerie shops and getting stuff waxed in no time." He trailed off, gazing dreamily off at some perverted vision that (thankfully) only he could see.

Kyohei could feel bile rising. "Shut up, perv! And just who will make my dinner while Sunako's off "blossoming", huh? I don't like instant noodles! I want shrimp! And pork! And deep-fried vegetables!"

"I'll make dinner," Yuki offered innocently. A spasm of horror crossed over Kyohei's face.

"We all have to make sacrifices," Takenaga said soothingly, stepping in front of Yuki protectively. "And just think, Kyohei- if Ranmaru's right, _free rent_. Free rent, man! Isn't that worth a few crappy meals?"

Kyohei mentally weighed this. Free rent versus Sunako's cooking…. If he had already eaten this would have been a no-brainer in favor of the free rent, but right now he was hungry, so the "Sunako's cooking" option was putting up a hell of a battle. Still, after a fierce internal debate, his bone-deep cheapness eventually won out and he gave a grudging nod. "Fine, then," he said. Then he narrowed his eyes at Ranmaru. "But you better be right about this. I'm not giving up Sunako's cooking without seeing some results. That girl better be looking ladylike _real_ fast."

"Oh, she will be," Ranmaru assured him. "What could go wrong?"

A silence fell as the boys pondered this.

"Well," Takenaga pointed out, "She could suddenly come back to her senses and maim him. Then he might sue."

"Or he might take one look at her room and drop dead." Yuki frowned. "It is possible to actually die of fear, right?"

Kyohei just sat and scowled at the teakettle heating on the stove as the boys began to argue over which possibility was more likely. Who cared what happened to that guy? He was probably just another one of Sunako's pity cases. For a girl that professed to have no friends, Sunako was forever finding new people to look after. He had to admit, though- this one hadn't reeked of neediness the way that most of the people that Sunako showed up with did. This guy had just seemed weird…

…and irritatingly chipper.

It _was_ kind of odd, now that he thought about it. What would Sunako want with a guy like that? He frowned over this for a moment, but eventually gave a mental shrug and dismissed the entire situation from his mind. If Ranmaru was right- yay, free rent! And if he was wrong, the guy would be gone soon enough and everything would go back to normal. Either way, Kyohei figured, it had nothing to do with him….

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note:

Wow, thanks so much for all the reviews! You guys were so encouraging! I'm sorry for the delay between chapters. I've written sizable chunks of the last chapter, but that (and, to a lesser extent, chapter four) is the chapter that inspired me to write the fic in the first place, so getting through these first three chapters is something of an ordeal. I'm trying to keep things amusing enough for the readers to slog through the first half of the story to get to the second half, which I promise will be better. And longer. (I hope. Unless I just jinxed it.) Anyway, thanks again, and I hope you enjoy-

Part Two:

It was nearly midnight, and Kyohei was staring at the laundry basket in the corner of the living room. It was pissing him off.

It was clean.

But it wasn't folded into precise piles, beautifully ironed, arranged by color and sorted into individual piles for each owner. Sunako was too busy for her usual level of housekeeping, and it showed.

But busy with _what_? Kyohei assured himself he didn't care, wasn't at all curious, would never be so hard up for entertainment that he had to spend his days obsessing over whatever creepy things his perpetually gloomy roommate did with her spare time, but he couldn't help but wonder. In the six days since the foursome had been introduced to her new "friend" (not that Sunako, who wasn't exactly Miss Manners, had actually made any introductions, but close enough) he'd seen Sunako exactly twice, and both times she'd headed directly into her room, mystery guy in tow, and slammed the door shut behind them, failing to re-appear for the rest of the day. What was she doing in there? What was _he_ doing in there?

Nothing good, Kyohei was sure. And meanwhile, there was no folded laundry. Or clean bathrooms. Or elaborate meals. Last night they'd had to eat convenience store bentos. Yuki, Ranmaru, and Takenaga had just shrugged and dug in, but Kyohei had been too busy thinking dark thoughts about the AWOL fifth member of their household to really enjoy his.

Kyohei was a simple kind of guy- all he asked from life was a little personal space, cheap rent, and the occasional deep-fried shrimp. He was doing great on the personal space and the cheap rent. As he'd gotten steadily grouchier over the course of the week, even his most ardent admirers had taken to giving him a wide berth, and Takenaga and Ranmaru assured him that Sunako's absence was due to the immense strides she was making down the path to becoming a lady.

Things didn't look so good on the fried shrimp front, however, and it was driving him nuts.

He couldn't believe that the other three didn't seem bothered by the state of the house at all. When he complained, Ranmaru gave a little smile that Kyohei found intensely irritating and murmured something about making sacrifices for the sake of true love. Yuki wandered around the mansion wondering aloud if Sunako-chan and her new friend would get married one day, and if so, if he would get to be the best man. Takenaga just gave Kyohei a long, appraising look and told him to do his own laundry.

Surprisingly enough, the only ally he found in his situation was Noi. Noi was appalled by the stories she was hearing from Yuki and Takenaga. "You can't let this happen, Kyohei-kun," she insisted. "Tell him that Sunako-chan is your girlfriend, and to keep his dirty hands off her!" The part about Sunako being his girlfriend was nonsense, of course, but it was nice to hear that someone else found Sunako's fascination with the new guy as irritating as he did.

Scowling, Kyohei wandered into the kitchen to fix himself a midnight snack. He was rummaging around in the fridge when he heard hushed voices coming from the hallway.

"…no way in hell."

"Oh, you will if I say you will, Nakahara…"

Kyohei stilled. It was the mystery guy and Sunako. What were they arguing about? What did the man want Sunako to do? Why was she so adamant about refusing him?

"I said no, and I meant no."

"Take. It. Off. _Now_, Nakahara."

Kyohei's world spun. Was the new guy trying to…? It couldn't be. There was no way. Moving as softly as he could, he inched toward the doorway, trying to peer down the darkened hallway. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, everything seemed to freeze.

Sunako's mystery guy was tugging on the hem of her shirt, trying to pull it upwards. She had her hands locked around the fabric, yanking it back down. The young man was holding something frilly in his other hand. Kyohei didn't know what it was, and he didn't care. Cursing, he flung himself at the guy, fully intending to separate his hand from Sunako's shirt, followed shortly by his head from his neck-

-only to be brought up short by a swift fist to the face.

A fist that he recognized.

"What the hell did you hit me for, woman?" Kyohei bellowed, clutching his nose and glaring at Sunako, who was busily shaking the pain out of her hand. "I wasn't the one trying to rip your clothes off!"

"Shut up," Sunako hissed, glancing over her shoulder. "You'll wake everyone up."

"But- but he… And you! You- you…" Kyohei was too angry to form a coherent sentence.

"Don't be an idiot," Sunako said coolly, turning her back on Kyohei. "C'mon, Nakao-san. We can finish this in my room."

Blinking at them both, the young man- whose name, apparently, was Nakao- looked first at Sunako, then Kyohei, then at the frilly thing he was clutching. The frilly thing seemed to fill him with courage. "Right! Back to work, Nakahara-san. Er… sorry to interrupt… whatever you were doing." With a nervous nod to Kyohei, the young man trooped back down the hallway in Sunako's wake.

Kyohei stared after them both. He had no idea what had just happened, but two things were clear.

His feelings were hurt.

And so was his nose.

TBC

Note: Not to worry, gentle readers. Kyohei isn't actually a cleanliness Nazi. He's just never taken Psych 101, so he's never heard of "displacement".


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Thanks so much for all the kind reviews and encouragement, guys. I hope you continue to enjoy this story! And one more thing- in reality, the gravesite brownies Sunako makes in this chapter are the beautiful, inspired creations of the fine people at the Metropolitan Market bakery, who make them at Halloween. They're delicious and adorable and I thought Sunako would like 'em, so I stole the idea.

Part Three:

By the time another week had gone by, _everyone_ had begun to feel Sunako's absence. Kyohei had been sulking hardcore ever since their argument, stalking around the house, refusing to speak to anybody. On Friday morning, Ranmaru threw a tantrum, claiming that all of the pre-packaged foods they'd been eating were having a detrimental effect on his complexion. (He was interested in free rent, but not at the expense of his manly beauty.) Noi had been driving everyone spare with increasingly bizarre plans to "re-unite" Kyohei and Sunako until Takenaga, who already had a headache due to Ranmaru's hissyfit, snapped at her to let them be. She left the house crying, which put Takenaga in an even fouler mood. Yuki spent his week fluttering around his housemates, doing his best to cheer everyone up. Takenaga ignored him, Ranmaru threw a package of ramen at his head, and the look on Kyohei's face had him fleeing the room in tears.

Sunako, meanwhile, continued to peacefully do… whatever it was she'd been doing.

And then Saturday rolled around.

In a silent, morose group, the boys walked toward the house. Everyone had done their best to put off going home- the house was not the welcoming space it had been a mere two weeks before, and they'd lingered at school for several hours. But as soon as they entered the house, it was evident that Sunako had spent the afternoon whipping the house back into its usual phenomenal shape.

The house was gleaming. The laundry was clean, ironed, and folded in neat piles. Exquisite aromas floated from the kitchen: scents of chocolate, fresh fruit, and frying fish. If you were very quiet (which, for an instant, the four boys were) you could just hear Sunako singing a children's Halloween song in the kitchen.

Normally, Kyohei would have set some kind of land-speed record arriving in the kitchen. Takenaga, Ranmaru, and Yuki certainly moved fast, jostling and tripping over each other in an effort to fit through the kitchen door and see what Sunako was up to. But something held Kyohei back. He wasn't sure what it was, but even the smell of food wasn't enough to lift his spirits. Frowning, he went to the kitchen doorway.

Sunako stood at the counter, her hair tied back in a messy knot at the nape of her neck. The kitchen was hot, and tendrils of hair stuck damply to her neck and forehead, but she had, for her, a downright cheerful expression on her face. She was wearing an apron with a skull and crossbones embroidered on it, and she was carefully decorating a platter of brownies. Each individual brownie had been arranged to look like a gravesite, covered with a layer of cookie crumbs and featuring a flat cookie sticking out of the top with "RIP" carved into it. Fish was frying on the stove and there were beautiful platters of fruit and vegetables set out. The boys were crowding around Sunako, all trying to talk to her at once.

"Sunako, can you make that soup you made for clear skin--"

"Sunako, you have to talk to Noi for me--"

"Sunako, everyone's been so meeeeeannnnn--"

Kyohei remained in the doorway, his eyes never moving from Sunako's neck. Those bits of hair stuck to her skin had to be uncomfortable, some part of him thought idly. He had a brief, insane urge to go over there and push them away for her.

He actually got as far as stepping towards her when sanity returned. What hell was wrong with him? "Cooking for your better half?" Kyohei asked sarcastically, his voice cutting through the noise the other three were making. "And where _is_ your new friend?"

Sunako glanced at him over her shoulder, her face expressionless. "My room."

"What's up with him, anyway?" asked Takenaga curiously. "Are you guys da-"

Sunako cut off that question with one of her patented Death Glares.

Takenaga immediately backed down. "Sorry. None of my business. So, about Noi…"

Kyohei drew breath to make another cutting comment, but found himself biting his tongue as he watched Sunako deal with the three boys chattering around her. She promised to speak to Noi, listened patiently to Yuki's complaints, and told Ranmaru that she'd make him the soup the next day. She was a miracle of efficiency, fixing problems with a minimum of words and without ever ceasing her work. In a matter of minutes, the four boys were sitting down to eat her carefully prepared food, their attitudes immensely improved. Even Kyohei felt more cheerful, until the sight of Sunako picking up two loaded plates and heading off towards her room brought his filthy mood right back.

He wasn't sure exactly why-- Sunako rarely ate with them, preferring to eat in her room whenever possible.

_But she never ate with anyone else, either_, pointed out a little voice in his head. _Particularly not with weird older guys who tried to pull up her shirt_. He ate the meal in front of him (crappy mood or not, Kyohei didn't turn down Sunako's cooking) but something about it just didn't taste right.

After they'd finished eating, Takenaga pulled out the milk crate they kept the mail in and began the unpleasant weekly chore of sorting through the letters. There was a tiny pile of bills, and four large, unwieldy stacks of love letters. He was about halfway through the crate when he ran across an envelope that made his blood run cold.

It was from the landlady. And it wasn't just your run-of-the-mill "Where's the rent?" kind of envelope. This was the kind of large, fancy, engraved envelope that shrieked "I am an invitation to the kind of extremely formal event that will require brute force to make Sunako attend". Takenaga opened it with shaking hands.

Oh, God. "Uh… guys?"

Three pairs of eyes zeroed in on the envelope in his hands. Three faces drained of color.

"What… what's it for?" Yuki whispered.

Takenaga swallowed hard. "A masquerade. She… she's sending Sunako a princess costume. It's pink. Also… really, _really_ heavy on the ruffles. And…" he trailed off. "It's on Halloween."

TBC

Poor Sunako! Will she have to spend her favorite day of the year dressed up in a pretty pink princess costume? Tune in next time to find out...


	4. Chapter 4

Howdy, all! Thanks for all the nice comments, and I'm very sorry this chapter took me so long. There's no excuse, seeing as I'd already written half of it. I'm just lazy. Anyway, hope you like it.

Chapter Four

It was Halloween afternoon—mere minutes before the landlady was due to collect them—and no one had told Sunako about the ball or her costume yet. It wasn't that they were _afraid_, exactly… it was just that they preferred to limit the period of time that Sunako would have to spend dreading the ball. Or, at least, that was what Takenaga, Ranmaru, and Yuki told themselves. They decided it was kindest, really, to leave her in the dark about the "treat" in store for as long as possible.

In reality, of course, they were waiting for Kyohei to turn up, so they could make him break the news to her. After all, Kyohei was the only one of them strong enough to have a chance in hell of making Sunako do something that she didn't want to do, and they'd long since fallen into the habit of forcing him to do their dirty work for them.

The only problem was that nobody had seen Kyohei in days. He'd been skipping school and he hadn't turned up for meals all week. People occasionally heard his door slam, and the sound of long legs bounding up the stairs late at night, but otherwise it was though he'd fallen off the face of the earth.

His roommates were getting worried about him. (Although, to be honest, only Yuki and Takenaga were worried about his actual welfare. Ranmaru was just worried that they were going to put him in charge of telling Sunako in Kyohei's absence. Sunako fought dirty, and he had no desire to go to a ball full of lovely grown-up ladies with a boot print on his face.) So all three of them were profoundly relieved to suddenly see Kyohei's tall, thin figure through the glass-fronted kitchen door.

"Oh, thank God you're here—"

"Where've you been? They were gonna make ME tell Sunako—"

"Kyohei! We've been so worried—"

Kyohei scowled and avoided everyone's eyes, taking off his coat and scarf and dumping them on the kitchen table. "None of your business. Where's Sunako?"

"In her room," Takenaga replied. "Look, Kyohei, you've got to talk to her. We haven't even shown her the dress yet, and the landlady will be here any min—"

Too late.

"Good evening, boys," came a purring voice from the doorway. "Are we all ready to go?"

Oh, God.

As one, the four young men turned to the doorway, their hearts filled with cold fear. The landlady stood in the entrance, dressed to the nines in a pre-French Revolution-period costume, complete with a shepherd's crook—one that looked like it could do some damage—and a powdered wig. She looked like an S&M version of Little Bo Peep. "What's this I hear about Sunako and her dress?"

"Hi, auntie. What dress?" Sunako stood in the other doorway, wearing her usual black dress. She didn't have a shepherd's crook, but the boys knew she didn't need one.

Caught between a rock and a hard spot, Takenaga took over. "Ah, we'll be right there," he said smoothly, herding his housemates toward the hallway as he spoke, "We just need to speak to Sunako for a moment. If you'll excuse us, Auntie?" Smiling pleasantly, he shoved everybody into the closest bedroom (Yuki's) and shut the door behind them. Then his smile disappeared. "Look, Sunako, we need a favor. _Please_. I know it's Halloween, and I'm sorry, but we need you to get dressed up and go to a party for a few hours. I promise we'll make it up to you. I'll do all your math homework for a month—no, two months!"

Sunako gave this the consideration it deserved. "No chance."

Ranmaru gave her his best seductive look, dropping his voice to a sultry whisper. "Look, Sunako, just do us this one little favor and I'll—"

Sunako was already listening to Yuki, not even seeming to hear him. Ranmaru scowled.

"Please?" Yuki had turned his puppy-eyed look up to full power, gazing at Sunako soulfully, looking at her like she was his one and only hope of salvation. "We… we really need your help, Sunako. None of us can afford to pay any more rent, and exams are coming up, so we can't get any more part-time jobs, and I…" (here his voice started to shake) "…I just don't know what I'll do…. If I fail, my parents might make me g-go b-back home…". Misty tears gleamed in his eyes.

Sunako stared at the boy in front of her, and her shoulders drooped. Takenaga, Ranmaru, and Yuki held their breath, knowing that this was the deciding moment. "Fine," she finally muttered. "I'll do it." Head down, defeat in every line of her body, she turned toward the door.

"Oh, thank you," Takenaga called after her. "The dress is in a box on my desk, and I promise I'll take care of your math homework first thing tomorrow."

"Forget it," Sunako replied, her voice dead. "I'd rather do it myself." Without looking at any of them, she slipped out the door.

"YES!" Yuki shouted, his tears instantly gone. Ranmaru gave the shorter boy a high-five. Only Takenaga seemed a little perturbed, biting his lip and raising a brow at Kyohei. Strangely, Kyohei hadn't said anything during the exchange, choosing instead to lean against the wall, arms folded, his face expressionless.

"Do… do you think we did the right thing, Kyohei?" Takenaga asked doubtfully. "She looked pretty upset."

There was a long silence, as Kyohei watched Yuki and Ranmaru do a victory dance in middle of the room. Finally, he heaved himself away from the wall, a look of contempt on his face. "You guys are pathetic."

"We're what?" Ranmaru and Yuki asked in unison, pausing mid-polka.

"You heard me," Kyohei snapped, turning on his heel and marching off towards the kitchen. His roommates scampered after him, wondering if he'd suddenly lost his mind.

Kyohei stalked into the kitchen, giving the landlady his fiercest glare. (It totally failed to impress her.) "Look," he said, "She may not be all pink and girly or whatever, but Sunako _is_ a lady. She takes care of all of us, she's smart, she's good with kids, she's strong, and she's…" at this point, Kyohei began looking very hard at everything except the fascinated stares of his three housemates, "…she's, y'know, okay-looking."

"Really," said the landlady, sounding just as fascinated.

"Yeah," Kyohei went on, warming to his point. "I think you should start appreciating Sunako for who she is, instead of trying to change her all the time. So… here." And with that, he pulled a fistful of money out of his pocket and shoved it at her.

A _big_ fistful of money.

A big fistful of large-denomination notes.

"What…?" The landlady looked at the cash. "But… but you're up-to-date on the rent (at the moment). So what's this for?"

Kyohei squared his shoulders and drew a deep breath. Never before had he done anything remotely like this, and he hoped devoutly that he never had to do anything like it again. "I… I'm _prepaying _the rent."

A dead silence settled over the kitchen, broken only by the twitching tail of the cat clock on the wall.

The silence hung out for a while.

Then it left.

"_WHHHHHHHAAAAAATTTTTT?_"

"I _said_, I'm prepaying the rent," Kyohei said, a little defiantly. "That should be enough to cover the next six months. So you can't hold anything over Sunako's head anymore, okay? Just leave her the way she is. She's… she's okay that way. More than okay. Let her enjoy her Halloween."

Takenaga couldn't move his eyes from the pile of money in the landlady's hands. "Where'd you get all that cash, Kyohei?"

Kyohei actually blushed. "I took a modeling job. It was a one-time thing, so they agreed to pay me up front and in cash." With that, he stalked out of the kitchen, head held high.

Nobody moved.

A moment later, Kyohei's head popped back into the kitchen. "By the way," he threatened, "If any of you tell anybody so much as a single word about me modeling, I swear to God that I'll make you suffer." He treated them all to a sample of his nastiest look to make sure they knew that he meant it. Then he left again, and, still sitting as though they'd been turned to stone, they all listened to his footsteps stomping off toward Sunako's room.

TBC….

In the next chapter, Kyohei and Sunako tidy up loose ends!


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Hi, all. I'm sorry this took so long. I've had hefty chunks of it written for months, but trying to do justice to a couple that really doesn't go for conventional happy endings wasn't easy. (Then I finally realized that I can't imagine how the author is going to produce a plausible happy ending for them in the manga series, either, which made me feel much better.) I've had fun writing this little series, and I hope you guys enjoy reading the final chapter!

ooooo

Chapter Five:

Kyohei was hovering outside Sunako's door. Nobody would describe him as a particularly sensitive young man, but even he couldn't miss the black waves of misery radiating from Sunako's room. Ninety percent of him wanted to flee the scene, but the remaining ten percent was telling him quite sternly that it was past time for him and his unhappy housemate to have a Serious Talk. Squaring his shoulders, he knocked.

There was a shuffling noise—the waves of misery got steadily stronger—and the door opened a crack. He could just make out Sunako's left eye, shooting out a death ray of gloom. "Er…" He managed. "Um… hey. H-how's it go…"

The door started to close again. Clearly, this was no time to be wishy-washy.

"Wait," Kyohei's hand shot out. "You—you don't need to go to that party tonight," he blurted out, pushing the door open further and squeezing his way inside…only to stop short at the sight of Sunako wearing the most ridiculous dress he'd ever seen, a rose-colored monstrosity that strongly resembled a ruffled blancmange, looking as tragic as a girl wearing head-to-toe pink frills _could_ look. Despite his nervousness, an involuntary snicker emerged.

Unfortunately for him, Sunako possessed the unique ability to switch from abject misery to murderous rage in roughly 0.02 seconds.

"Die, Creature of the Li—", she hissed, hair standing on end and twin flames of rage lighting her eyes, her fingers curling as she prepared to attack. Then his statement seemed to filter through. "Wait. I don't have to go?"

Kyohei uncurled himself the defensive position he'd automatically assumed. "Er... yeah," he said. Looking at anything but the girl in front of him, his ears turning crimson, he explained: "I… found some cash… and, ah, pre-paid the rent. So… you don't need to go for our sake. You can just do your usual Halloween thing." He glanced at her from underneath his lashes. "Y'know. Be in here. By yourself."

There. He'd said it. Now he was planning to go straight upstairs and lock himself in his room until he stopped blushing, which ought to happen sometime around early January, give or take a week or two.

"I--I really don't have to go?" Sunako asked slowly, her mind trying to comprehend this unprecedented turn of events. "I… don't have to wear this dress?"

He nodded.

Sunako was having some trouble. For a smart girl, she wasn't particularly quick on the emotional uptake, and this really wasn't the kind of thing she handled well. But, dim as her comprehension of basic manners was, she understood that she owed Kyohei a serious debt of gratitude. Taking a deep breath, Sunako did her best, stammering a little. "Er… well, if I d-don't have to go anywhere, then would you… would you like to j-join my Halloween party?" She groped for something else to give him. "I- I cooked! There are cookies and chocolates and a cake shaped like a head on a stake…"

If she'd looked up just a fraction higher, she might have seen the look of goofy joy cross Kyohei's face at her invitation (followed by an expression of queasiness at this demonstration of her cake decorating skills). "Okay," he said nonchalantly, aiming—unsuccessfully—for cool. "I guess. Got nothing better to do."

Sunako twitched a little, making all of the ruffles of her dress tremble. "Fine," she muttered. "Well, uh, I'll just light my Jack-O-Lanterns, and I'll start the movie. It's a Taiwanese import—something about gigantic man-eating rodents."

Kyohei noticed something on her hand as she reached for the box of matches on the table. "What's that?"

Sunako stilled.

Did she truly want to share this—her most beloved, hard-won possession—with one of the Creatures of the Light? She'd already shown it to Hiroshi-kun, naturally, but her inanimate friends were a safe audience. On the other hand, out of the four boys in the house, Kyohei was… well, if not precisely _understanding_ about her tastes, certainly the least likely to run away in tears. Biting her lip, she made up her mind—this was too incredible to keep to herself, and he _had_ saved her Halloween. Her eyes glowing, Sunako tilted her hand towards Kyohei. There was a large, extraordinarily ugly ring with a dome-shaped filigree ornament on her finger.

Kyohei felt his breath catch. This… this couldn't be the world's ugliest engagement ring, could it?

"It's a poison ring," Sunako whispered reverently. "It belonged to one of the Borgias."

Kyohei nearly fell over. "It's a _what_? Where the hell did you get it? Why's it so ugly?"

"It is _not_ ugly," Sunako scowled at him. "It's _beautiful_. See this catch? It makes the top of the ring flip open, so poison could fall out into somebody's wineglass. Nakao gave it to me." At the mention of Nakao, the force of her scowl increased approximately one thousand percent. "Had to work my ass off for it, too."

She had to… Kyohei's mind reeled. Clearing his throat, he croaked, "You had to work for it? Doing _what_?"

Sunako shuddered at the memory. "Nakao's a fashion designer. He's doing a Gothic Lolita line, and he wanted me to model for him. Told him no, but then I noticed his ring…." She trailed off as she stared at the ring. "He said his dad is a collector. We agreed to trade—I did the photographs, and he gave me the ring. The last session was yesterday." She looked up at Kyohei, and his breath caught a little at how happy she looked, despite the pink ruffles. "See? I already loaded it," she confided. "Found some rat poison in the basement."

Kyohei stared at her, watching as she extended her pale hand for his examination. She was totally demented, and dressed in a dress that looked like a tea cosy, and the ring on her hand probably had enough rat poison on it to kill everyone in the house… but she was smiling her lovely, dangerous, rarely-seen smile, and he lost his head.

He dipped his head and pressed a soft, fleeting kiss on her lips. Then he leapt back, hoping for a decent head start if Sunako got homicidal.

Sunako froze, making a slight wheezing sound. Kyohei winced. Dammit, he was too young to die.

She tried to speak, failed, and tried again. She eventually managed a faint "…wh-why…?"

Kyohei kept a nervous eye on the poison ring. "It, uh, seemed like a good idea at the time?" he offered weakly.

Sunako's mind was trying to process this new development. Her eyes looked a little swirly, and actual smoke seemed to be coming out of her ears. Unable to function, she collapsed in a quivery heap. Luckily, the sofa was there to catch her.

Kyohei held his breath and waited for death to arrive.

…and waited…

…and waited some more.

He was still wary, but Kyohei's spirits rose as the seconds ticked by and Sunako didn't A) try to kill him, and/or B) lock herself in a coffin. Sure, she hadn't exactly thrown herself into his arms, but all things considered, they weren't doing too badly. Keeping a weather eye on the girl on the sofa, Kyohei picked up the box of matches and finished lighting the candles in her dozens of carved pumpkins, giving her time to recover. By the time he'd finished, Sunako had managed to sit up, bracing herself on shaky arms. Cautiously, he sat down next to her on the sofa—maintaining a prudent distance—and looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

She was sheet-white and twitchy, but she still looked fully human, which was more than he would have dared hope for. Kyohei firmly clamped down on the huge smile that threatened to break out across his face and reached for the remote to the DVD, trusting that the on-screen carnage would soothe her.

Hell, if the movie was gory enough to really perk her up, he might even try to put his arm around her.

…then again, he decided, eyeing the ring on her finger, he might leave that for another day.

He didn't want to rush her, after all. They had all the time in the world.

ooooo The End! ooooo


End file.
